The Nature of the Desert
by hey.moon
Summary: Lei is first found by Gaara after he kills off attacking shinobi. She wasn't afraid though. She thought it was beautiful. Soon he adopts her as a surrogate daughter Lei however falls quite hard for Kankuro. She teaches everyone in Suna the beauty of love.
1. He's a Handsome Women

Everything was closing in around me. People dropping off; bursting into crimson blood flowers with a single man's twist of long pale pianist fingers. He was killing them with graceful almost magical sand. It was beautiful, so beautiful I couldn't look away. While life was stopping around me, there he stood calmly staring back with sea foam green eyes. Raw power could be felt in the air I breathed in and I smiled. I let my fingers intertwine with my gold locks as I smiled at him. He was doing this show for me right? They were trying to hurt me. They were cruel people. They deserved death.

Suddenly it all stopped. My amethyst eyes widened as the sand slowly started to resemble a hand craddling my cheek. I let out a sound close to a purr and nestled my head into it. It reminded me of my father of the kindess that he showed toward me. The man came closer with his hand still controlling the magical sand. His dark burgandy red hair reminded me of the blood that was spilt like paint around me. Dark black coal make up seemed to outline his pretty eyes. I knew it wasn't make up because men don't wear make up. Then again men also aren't pretty.

He was though this man. I opened my eyes and stared at the man. Pushing off from the ground with my small pale limbs, my legs almost buckled from lack of use. Movement was awkward for me. My body seemed foreign but i could feel the bright orange sundress i had on cut short a few inches above my knees. The man was taller than me, my nose only reaching the middle of his broad chest. I smiled up at him again before hugging him gently.

* * *

The powerful man was shocked at what the girl was doing. Her long gold hair was tickling his skin and her gentle hands blended on top of his pale ebony skin. He did nothing to stop her. She could only have been two years younger than him, making her sixteen. He noticed that she was short which was saying something since the Kazekage wasn't that tall to begin with. The girl's breathe hit his shirt making him look down. They must have been a funny sight. His hair red. Her basically being all gold. They must have looked like a flame. Flames were pretty; wild too. He knew that he was wild, atleast a thing deep down in his body was. Was she to wild?

"Thank you." She wasn't afraid. Her father and mother died because of those people. The villagers said that her garden, her flowers, would kill them all so her parents had to die for protecting such a beast. Ironically enough the villagers died in the form of bloody roses. Beautiful bloody roses.

"Do you have any family to stay with?" The Kazekage asked ignoring what the hugging girl said. He was starting to get awkward standing in a room where the occupants were 20 but only 2 were alive. He couldn't understand why the girl was happy when he just mercilessly killed the many waterfall shinobi around them laying helter skelter across the floor.

"No... do you want to be my new papa?" By now the girl had grown serious, all the child like mirth leaving her eyes. The man pushed her away breaking the embrace. This girl couldn't possibly be serious. Why would she?

"What's your name?" The girl's throat ached. Why wouldn't he answer any of her questions? She gave him a pained smile.

"Lei. What's yours Papa?" Lei looked at the Kazekage with an awaiting stare. The Kazekage just nodded and turned to walk out of the room. Carelessy he lifted a hand beckoning her to follow. She looked like she had sturdy hands. Maybe Kankuro could use her somehow.

They slowly walked next to each other into the twilight, two very strange people. Lei looked at her feet while walking finding the crunching of autumn leaves quite interesting. The colors were perfect to her. They all matched each other somehow, by some greater being that knew contemplating people would just have to agree that they paired well with each other. Red. Yellow. Brown. Orange. She looked at the leaves before picking up a large brown leaf about the size of her palm. Lei closed her hand squeezing the leaf before staring up at the sky. There wasn't a moon out that night just thousands of stars. Did they see what happened tonight? Everything was quiet besides the almost silent whirl of sand that seemed to be confined in a large gorge on the Kazekage's back.

"Gaara. My name is Gaara." The girl smiled at her surrogate father before moving closer to the man. She smiled to herself as if knowing a secret that no one else did and happy that it was her own. Lei grabbed his hand into her small one. Gaara felt something in the palm of his hand when she held his and opened it. Inside there was a golden daisy. He looked around and couldn't find a patch of daisies anywhere nor could he recall Lei leaving the trail to go get one. Maybe she had it with her all along. Ignoring the flower and her hand, he began walking alone again. Lei didn't mind. She knew that he loved her. She was just glad she had a father again. Quickly she stumbled faster to catch up with the man letting her shinobi sandles make a scuffing noise.

* * *

I looked at Gaara as we started to venture into a desert climate. Could everyone control magical sand like he could? My mind couldn't think and hold its own monologue any more as the heat started getting to my head. I had long since pinned the gold tresses up carelessly in an intricate design to hold its long length. I thought i looked pretty but I didn't ask Papa. He didn't look like a man of many words. I could tell though they he knew many words, just didn't employ them in meaningless conversations. My cheeks were most likely a ruddy red color and contrasted greatly with my skin. Gaara didn't have to tell me this is where he lived I could just tell.

"Are we there yet?" Ah, yes this torturous game that every child loved to play to get a funny rise out of an greater authoritative figure. I could see the slight twitch in his emotionless facial expression.

"Really? Lei are you reall-"

"Yes. Are we there yet?"

"You're are sixteen years old, don't you thin-"

"Nope. Are we there yet?"

"You were silent the whole time why no-"

"Boredom, papa, boredom. Are we there yet?"

"Shut. the. hell. up."

"What?"

"You heard me. Shut the hell up."

* * *

The duo hadn't realized that they had gotten to the gates of Suna yet and that the two chunnin watching the gate where forced to listen to their conversation. They had never heard their Kazekage speak to anyone like that, not even the loud mouth shinobi from Konoha when he was especially obnoxious. Gaara realized the tension in the guards faces and raised a non existent eyebrow. They just nervously chuckled and scratched the back of their heads bashfully before bowing to him. Lei raised an eyebrow of her own. What exactly was her papa?

"Did you have a good mission Kazekage-sama?" the braver of the guards asked. He had long shaggy blonde hair and electric green eyes, rather smaller than a usual shinobi but he had great speed to make up for his lack of build. The other guard was slightly older in years and had a war worn face. Black hair and dark brown eyes made him look like a great dane.

"It was completed but I ended up wth a daughter somehow. She's kind of bothersome," Gaara said pointing to Lei as she was staring at all the tall grand sand buildings. The blonde looked shocked. Was the Kazekage making a joke? He never joked.

"Umm... congradulations?" Rarely did Gaara ever smile but he did a small one. He was somehow proud to have a daughter now, it made the kanji symbol on his forehead feel less heavy.

"Yes, thank you Ryo." After that the Kazekage nudged the gold girl before trudging back towards the mansion. Even though he will never admit it, Gaara missed Temari's horrible cooking and he missed Kankuro's moronic antics. Kyo just stood shocked and amazed that **the **Kazekage actually knew his name. Maybe Naruto did change him that one year of his first Chunnin exam.

Not to come off as rude he bellowed at their retreating figures, "Welcome home Kazekage-sama! Welcome home hime-chan!"

Lei smiled and threw her head back into the rays of the sun unceremoniously.

Yes, welcome home it was.


	2. Where the Wild Thing Lives

The walls were a dull beige sand color like the rest of the walls had been in the last ten rooms. It seemed like no one was home until I heard a thud from a purple painted door. Quickly after, an animalistic growl echoed in the rest of the empty house. I bit my pink lip quite hard as I snapped my head towards Gaara in explanation. The only inference I recieved from him expression was tired bored. Were odd noises like that normal in his house? Suddenly a high pitched moan was thrown out of the room and my cheeks seemed slapped a bright red. A very vivid picture of two very scantily clad people filled my mind foggily before I closed my eyes and enclosed my right hand in a tight grip of Gaara's cloack. Finally the thuds and moans came in a full force chorus and i squeaked in embarrasment trying to hide in Gaara's back. He tossed me a look that i didn't see that clearly read how ironic this symphony of sympathy was.

"Can we move on?" I quietly murmured hoping to get away from the free show in the dreaded purple room.

"You'll met him later." Gaara moved us along the hallway moving in and out of the bright light the wall of windows allowed. If this man had random sex during the day, it was only 2:30 in the afternoon, than I'm pretty sure I would not like to associate with wild things on my own free will. Finally as we seemed to approach another special door , this one was a forest green color, my body went slightly rigid and tense. Hearing people doing the nasty twice in one day sure as hell wasn't on my agenda.

Gently knocking on the wooden door, he muttered, "Temari."

As we waited for 'Temari' to answer the door i pressed my left ear to the door trying to hear any slight movement inside. All I heard was swirling wind before the door opened to present a sandy blonde woman. Whipping my head back, I scooted back until my back hit Gaara's chest which made me jump forward startled. This lady just smiled gently at me before bending over slightly to my eye level making me even more aware of the height difference I had with people. I just stared at her clothes which were a quite revealing green top, standard black shinobi shorts, and sandals.

"Hi there. I'm Temari." Temari stuck out her hand as to shake mine and timidly I extended my own. She reminded me of my mother. Would she be my mama?

"Lei. Will you be my mama?" The woman seemed startled at my request but quickly smiled and nodded. I clapped my hands excitedly before keeping ahold of her hand and grabbing Gaara's. My heart thuded excitedly in my chest as I pictured myself with my family again.

"Now we could be a family! Right? You, papa, and me!" I closed my eyes and smiled as we started to walk down the hallway farther away from the special green door and special purple door. Gaara ruffled my hair affectionately and Temari laughed lightly at my naiveness.

We walked together and the closer we got to another special door, this one red, I started to fight with my eye lids to stay up. Sleep was slowly closing in around me as I forced my feet to move forward , even if it mean dragging them making a scuffing sound on the wood panels. The image in front of me became a blurred muli-colored world before Gaara lifted me up and held me in a craddle position. I nestled closer into his body heat and curled myself into a ball. i don't know when but i could feel myself sink into something, that I later found out was a bed. The sheets were cool under my touch as my cheeks returned to their pale colorless color.

Gaara had already left but before Temari could I closed my hand in hers.

"I love you mama." Once I fell asleep my grasp weakened and fell out of hers into the bed.

As Temari went to get she felt an object in her hand. She looked into it as saw a golden daisy. Did Lei have it with her the whole time? Shrugging. she tucked the flower into her hair behind her ear to hold it in place. Flowers never grow in Suna and this one was pretty.

* * *

Kankuro stared at his black cieling as the nameless girl slept on next to him pressing her chest toward his left arm. He thought that was really good excercise but he had to dump this chick off somewhere before she thinks they're going out which would be a major bust. She was better than most of the others though. He'll giver her that. His tanned body rippled slightly as his muscles twitched from a chill. It was strange; during the sex he thought he heard a squeak coming from outside but he just blamed it on the matress. Everything was dark in his room as he just stared at it. The Crow was sitting on his desk staring in his direction which made it a little creppy once he thought about it. What if he was staring at them while they were... getting it on. Clothes were thrown everywhere on the floor and somehow the girl's bra was spinning on the cieling fan above. That's what Kankuro had been staring at the time. The girl was a liar she said she was a double D when in reality she was just a C. The man pouted and crossed his arms as he continued to think.

A knock came from the door.

Getting up he pushed the two-cent hooker away from him. Kankuro answered the door in all his glory not particularly caring who it was. All that mattered was that all his face paint was off so he didn't look like too much of a slob. There before him as he swung open the door was his brother Gaara. He smiled ecstatically. It had been 2 weeks since he went on that mission.

"Hey Gaara! You're back!" As the puppeter leaned in for a hug, the Kazekage raised his hand to stop him. Sure Gaara loved his brother but not enough to hug him naked. Gently he gave him a pat on the shoulder.

"Yes... why are you still naked?" Kankuro crunched his eyebrows in confusion. Didn't he just get back?

"What do you mean still?" Gaara had years of controlling his emotions but embarresment still had a mind of its own sometimes. The blood rushed to his cheeks slightly.

"Well Lei and I got home when you and your "lady friend" were having some fun. I thought you'd have clothes on by now." The brunette just cheekily smiled at his younger brother with absolutley no shame. He couldn't help it if this was where the wild thing lived. He loved women and women loved him.

"well I enjoy going comando so... wait who's Lei?" A small smirk rose on the red head's lips as he thought of Lei. She was powerful. He knew there was something special about her.

"My new daughter."

"Wait so you had sex too!" The puppeter didn't get it. He didn't even think Gaara was sexually active let alone expecting child.

"No."

"Well than how did you get a daughter?"

"I don't know I just got one alright!" Gaara was getting quite frustrated with Kankuro. He went on a mission, killed waterfall shinobi, saved Lei, and now she was his daughter. Oh wait... maybe there was a reason Kankuro didn't get it.

"Gaara. Gaara. I think its time for **the talk **about the birds and the bees." Now Kankuro was a little embarrassed. He never thought that he would have to explain that to his little brother. The man was wondering if there was a way to convince Temari to teach him but he knew the blonde she-devil would rather give up her fan for two months than talk to their younger brother about sex.

"Kankuro what does this even have to do with birds and bees?" The Kazekage didn't even understand how those two were linked with one another.

"...Everything. Didn't Naruto already give you **the talk?" **The man was started to sweat in nervousness.

"What talk?"

"About sex!"

"Oh... Naruto called it the ramen and the chopsticks." Gaara was wondering why Kankuro wouldn't say ramen and chopsticks in the first place.

"...He would..." Kankuro blanched before letting his hand smack his head in exasperation.

Gaara stood there confused and Kankuro stood there naked.


End file.
